


The Apocalypse Starts While You're Asleep

by EllowynTheNotKing



Series: Apocalypse at the hands of the readers [1]
Category: Original Work
Genre: Ava is concerned, Choose Your Own Adventure, Dana is a worried adult, Dana sees all, Eli is sneaky, Everyone gets eaten, Gen, Kinda, Neighbor boy Eli, Neighbor girl Ava, Start at home, Try to run, Zombie Apocalypse, nobody lives, not really - Freeform, now with more break-ins
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-20
Updated: 2019-03-13
Packaged: 2019-11-01 11:38:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 8
Words: 6,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17866556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EllowynTheNotKing/pseuds/EllowynTheNotKing
Summary: After a long night, you choose to stay at home instead of going to work. Is that a good choice or a very bad one?





	1. Is going to work worth it? Is it really worth it?

Staying up late is every child’s dream but every adult’s hated reality. There’s a reason adults want to go to bed early, it’s because we’re always tired. Tired from work, tired from going out, tired from not doing anything, tired from doing seemingly everything. Being an adult is tiring.

If you had known what the next day would bring you would have gone to bed far earlier than you did. As it is you’ll be running on roughly four hours of sleep anyway. The jarring beeping from your alarm clock at the feelingly ungodly hour of six in the morning rouses you. Today, given the option, you would choose to go back to bed. But that’s not too out of the norm for you. Ever since you came up with the  _ brilliant _ idea of taking some work home to do it there you haven’t been getting enough sleep. You have no idea how your coworkers do it, how the hell is Susan so happy? She’s always happy and you know she’s getting about the same amount of sleep as you.

Debating with yourself you get up momentarily -nature always calls when you’re at your comfiest- before sitting on the edge of your bed. The pounding in your head begs you to go back to sleep, but you really don’t have any more paid sick days, and you should really get the reports, the ones that kept you up all night, in to your boss before nine. 

It doesn’t take long for you to decide what you’re going to do. After all, all the decisions have already been made for you, you just have to pick. 

With very, very little thought you turn back to your bed and crawl back in. You’ll send an e-mail to your boss at a more reasonable hour. Within minutes you’re back in the world of pleasant dreams and warmth. 

That is to say, you sleep for a while longer, perhaps a couple of hours. You sleep long enough to feel less groggy and spiteful, but still more than a little angry at whoever is banging on your door with what sounds like a small battering ram. 

Still a little groggy you flip on the coffee maker as you meander to the door through the kitchen. Stopping at the door you’re more than a little surprised to see that it seems to be in good shape despite the pounding on it. 

Looking through the peephole you see your neighbor Dana. She looks terrified as she bangs on your door. You don’t know her that well, but she brought over some pastries when you moved in, and the two of you often exchange pleasantries whenever you bump into each other. 

You can hear her saying something, you’re not sure what though, over the pounding in your head, her pounding on the door, and the quietness of whatever she’s trying to say. With the pain in your head and how loud she’s being, you aren’t sure whether answering the door or ignoring it would be worse. 

Sighing you rub your head and go to get some aspirin from the bathroom, before deciding what to do.

  
  


The pounding in your head is too much, you decide to not answer the door, she’ll think you aren’t home soon enough and go try to bother someone else.

You feel kinda bad about how scared she looks, you let her in[,](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Hqoiea6NG-I0MA11iTLWQjktmKw9_Pq_OsQNtwN_-3A/edit#heading=h.wn11xo2tduzz) but it’s only for a little bit, you took the day off for a reason.


	2. Wait, What Happened Downstairs?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You feel kinda bad about how scared she looks, you let her in, but it’s only for a little bit, you took the day off for a reason.

Dana scrambles through the door as soon as it’s unlatched, slamming it shut behind her you can only just make out her words. 

“Oh thank god you’re here! I thought I was going to be all alone with those things!” Now that you can see her properly she looks terrified, but now a little bit relieved. 

“What happened?” You help her stand, “What things?” You lead her to the kitchen, it’s small, but at least you have an extra chair at your table. 

“You haven’t seen any?” She looks at you like you’ve grown another head. 

“Dana, I literally woke up because you were banging on my door, what are you talking about?” You pour yourself some coffee, pause, and then pour some for your unexpected guest. 

“The zombies!” 

“What? Shit!” You turn too fast and spill coffee all over. 

“Zombies, all over the city! You need help?” 

“No.” You shake your head, “When? How?” you start cleaning up the coffee with all too mechanical motions. 

“It started this morning, well, probably last night, but this morning the O’Reilly’s on the fourth floor were yelling and kicking up a storm. The cops got called and I guess the entire family had been bitten or had changed. Then, then they got a couple of the cops and a couple of the other neighbors. Then a little bit ago I went over to Mr. Jameson’s place to see if he had any idea what was going on and he tried to attack me! I only just got out of his place with my life!”

Giving her the coffee so she has to take a breath you ask, “Why would you knock on my door if you knew that. The. If I could have been one of them?”

Dana pauses, “I, I hadn’t actually thought about that. I only know a few people in the building, and you’re one of them. I figured it would be safer to check with you before anyone I don’t know.” 

“Why were you knocking on doors anyway?” You start pulling stuff for breakfast out of the fridge, needing to do something with your hands, “You want any?” 

“Yes please, and actually partially for that reason. It’s Thursday, and on Thursdays, I get my groceries. I’m down to next to nothing right now. But I was hoping someone had some food to share or knew more about what was going on. If it’s being way over dramatized then it would probably be safe to get some groceries, but if it’s not then hopefully someone’s willing to share.” She looks up at you hopefully, and you realize she’s trying to nonchalantly ask if you’re willing to share. 

You avoid groaning, you don’t have a ton of food, but you have a decent about of food that can last for a while without freezing. 

 

You know that you don’t have a lot, not enough to  share the food. Kick Dana out , she’ll only be a drain on what little food you have left and what’s she ever done for you anyway. 

 

Share your food, you can’t think as to why not.  Dana is pretty clever and if it really is the zombie apocalypse she might be good to have as back up. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first person to comment on each chapter, not for the entire fic. I should probably fix the overall for that.


	3. Plans Well Made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You let Dana in, and she is surprisingly helpful.

“Yeah, I have enough to share for a while. I’m not sure how long it’s going to last though.” You try to figure out how long exactly the food is going to last between the two of you as she thanks you profusely. 

“You’re a real lifesaver, really. Thank you sooo much!”

“You said you didn’t have much, but how much do you actually have?” 

“Some canned foods, beans, that kind of thing. Most of it you shouldn’t eat on its own or you’d regret eating on its own.” She pauses, “If you want I can run back? I mean, when I was coming up here there wasn’t anyone in the halls. They. It didn’t seem like they were smart enough to open doors so assuming no one’s let them out I can run back and grab as much as I can.”

“That’s smart, we can make all of our food last a little longer if we mix beans and stuff into the rest of it. That at least might give us a little breathing room. You should grab some blankets and a few changes of clothes too. If nothing else we can at least make ourselves comfortable here.” She gets up like she’s going to leave, “After breakfast, I’ll go with you so we can carry more stuff.” 

“Oh yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” 

The two of you talk and make simple plans for getting her things while the food finishes cooking and while you eat. 

You grab the baseball bat that you only have for self-defense from behind the door and offer her selection from your kitchen knives. 

With your plan in mind, the two of you carefully creep to her apartment. More than once you hear the snarls and growls and screeches from behind closed doors. Each time you jump and she does too. Her door is locked and it takes what feels like forever in you adrenaline soaked mind for her to get it unlocked. You both take a breather in her kitchen before getting to the task at hand. 

Starting with the cupboards you clear anything that is technically out of them making a small but formidable pile on her kitchen table. But she was right about what the pile would contain. Most of the cans are filled with things that you add to food. So many kinds of beans, tomato sauce and paste, some canned fruits, some dehydrated soups. So many spices as well. She looks at you a little apologetically from across the pile. 

“These should be able to last for a while. Why do you have so many spices if you don’t use them?” You pick up a couple of the different spices that look almost completely full.

“I don’t use a lot of extra stuff in my food. The only time I do is when a friend gives me a recipe that specifically calls for something and even then I usually don’t make them more than once.” she shrugs a little. 

“Well, considering we’re going to be eating a lot of beans we’ll definitely be using these spices. Go get some clothes and anything else you think you’ll need. Where do you keep your grocery bags?” You had just cleared the kitchen but hadn’t seen any sign of the things. 

She points you to where she has a veritable mountain of reusable bags, you shrug and start packing up the cans and spices while she gets her things together. All in all, it’s only four bags, so each of you takes two and keep one hand open just in case. 

Getting back upstairs is just as nerve-wracking as going down was. But at least this time you’re certain in the safety of your home. She takes her clothes and blankets into the living room, at least you had pillows to spare if nothing else, and you put away all the foodstuffs. 

The two of you spend the next hour planning what to eat so you can make the food last as long as possible.  

After that, you talk for a few hours. When you’ve run out of things to talk about you both grab a book from your bookshelf and sit down to read. Each of you only breaking to cook or sleep. 

That’s how you spend the next week and a half. Talking about your books while cooking and eating then going back into the slightly less worrying world of fiction as you both try to avoid what the dwindling food supply means. 

Finally, or all too soon, you hit the bottom of what you have, As you and Dana sit down to what will be your second to last meal if you don’t do anything you worry about what to do.  Dana suggests going to her next door neighbor’s apartment, she has a lot of stores of nonperishable food. She thinks the lady was going out of town for some reason right before this started. But she isn’t sure if the lady actually left.

 

You could go with Dana to see if the  lady left food. Downside she hates anyone who she doesn’t know well and might not share if she is there.

  
Then again you could stay,  but if she’s not there Dana could get attacked on her way there or back and the food might be stolen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first person to comment on this chapter chooses where we go next.   
> This time it was to share with Dana, let's see where we go next chapter.


	4. There Was an Old Lady Who Traveled a Lot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You join Dana on the trip to the lady's apartment, but now you have some other choices to make.

Of course, you have to go with her. If something happened to her you’d feel terrible. Once again you make a plan of action, then a backup, then a backup for the backup. 

Once again you grab your trusty bat and she grabs the meanest looking knife you have. Down you creep together. This time though, you’re even more careful. You’ve heard the zombies moving around since your last trip and too many screams. Neither of you wants to be caught off guard. 

Moving silently feels more impossible than it ever has, each breath seems like a gale force and each step sounds like a herd of elephants. The creaky steps are like gunshots. The sounds of  _ others _ moving around, once something that kept you from feeling alone, causes your breath to catch each time as you strain to hear if they’re coming closer. 

Finally, finally, years or centuries later you reach the floor you had been creeping towards. 

Dana knocks on the door, so soft that you have to strain to hear the sound. Then a little louder, but not by much. You rap on the door, fast and far too loud to your own ears, then listen again for any sound from the other side. 

You and Dana share a look, then you slip back into her apartment. She has keys to the neighbors to water the plants. As she looks for them, You wait. Worriedly listening at the door for any sign that something else had heard your knock and had come looking. 

Her pleased laugh almost has you jumping out of your skin. You frown at her and she apologizes quietly before you both move back into the hall. Then into the other apartment. 

You do a quick sweep of the apartment, but there’s no sign that anyone’s been here in a while. The plants are all dead, and a plate of brownies is completely rotten. 

Dana sighs when she sees them. “She must have made these right before she left.” Putting the knife down she lifts the plate and puts it into the sink. 

“Did she leave brownies out to rot often?” You ask, opening cupboards that are rather empty of dried goods and canned food. 

“No, well, I mean yes, technically. But she didn’t leave them to rot, she left them as a preemptive ‘thank you’ for my watering her plants. She went on a lot of trips and usually left me some kind of sweet thing for while she was gone and she’d make me a casserole when she got back.” She groans as she goes through the cupboards on her side of the kitchen. “Nooooo. There’s supposed to a lot of food!” 

You finish clearing your side of the kitchen before looking at what Dana’s gotten, and surprise, surprise, it really isn’t a lot. Together the piles are more than you have now for sure, but only about as much as your and Dana’s combined food at the beginning. 

“There was supposed to be a lot?” You aren’t sure how much of your words are irritated question and how much are worried statement.

“The last time I came over she had enough food for a small army!” Dana nearly shouts you shush her quickly.

“It’s fine. Look, we can go door to door, see how many people are in the building still and how many, uh, not people are here. Anyone who’s not here or bit, their food is our food. We’ll be fine.” You smile and nod and she nods back. 

“We should get this back to your place then do that.” You agree and together you pack up the food. 

You both wander the apartment, Dana grabs a few knives from the kitchen and you grab a few more blankets. The heating cut off a couple days ago and it’s already getting uncomfortable cold at night in your apartment. 

Together you make the equally slow and terrifying journey back to your apartment. This time getting stranded for a moment by,  _ someone _ , who snarled near the top of the stairs but eventually left. 

You make a list of what you have, and together you figure out it should last you about the same amount of time as last time. But now is the time for new plans. You want to go to the left, Dana wants to go to the right. Dana thinks it’s a good idea to knock on doors to warn anyone alive of your presence, but you think knocking may alert anything nearby of where you are and any living that may wish you harm, or to at least steal your food. 

 

You figure it doesn’t matter which direction you go, so you accept going right,  but get Dana thinking and agree on not knocking.

 

You convince Dana going left is a good idea,  but ultimately agree to knock is smart.

 

You figure staying on Dana’s good side is the best choice and agree with her on all points .

  
You convince Dana that  left is as good a direction as any , and that knocking on doors is too dangerous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was written in comic sans and took nowhere near as long to type as normal. If you need to write a lot try writing in comic sans.  
> As always the first to comment get's to choose the direction. Just make sure it's the right one.


	5. Knock, Knock, Knocking at the Neighbor's door

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You listened to Dana on all accounts, you go right and even knock at the door.

Once you and Dana have a plan you decide to wait until tomorrow. At the moment you have enough food for another week or so, and you feel about ready to crash and sleep for twelve hours from all the adrenaline that was coursing through you just an hour previously.

Also, it’s starting to get late and nothing good has ever come from breaking into places while sleep deprived.

Reluctantly, Dana agrees. Although, once you’ve got her sitting with you at the table, you can almost see the leftover adrenaline rush from her system. She slowly starts leaning harder and harder on the table until it’s obvious she’s going to fall asleep like this.

You help her to the makeshift bed she’s made of your couch and then go to bed yourself, only just remembering to take off your shoes before getting into the bed.

The next morning you wake up ravenous and cook up what would have been last night’s dinner as well as breakfast for this morning. You’re pretty sure you didn’t make much noise so the smell must have been what roused Dana.

She steals a bite from the hot pan, quickly regretting it, and snag a gulp of your coffee before going and pouring herself some. She perches on the counter next to the stove and watches you finish up the food.

The two of you put everything onto the table before digging is and consuming everything. It seems you weren’t the only one who woke up hungry. You finish up your coffee as Dana all but licks the plate.

“You ready?” she asks once she’s done and you’ve caught her eye. It's the first thing either of you had said all morning. You had hoped she would put this off for a bit, but she's seems just as nervous.

“As I’ll ever be.” together you make short work of the dishes and gather the supplies you’ve brought every other time you’ve gone to dig through someone’s apartment. This time you’ve also brought a credit card that Dana was positive she could use to jimmy a neighbor’s lock and a crowbar you can’t remember buying that you’re going to use to break open the doors if needed.

You listen at the door for a moment before opening it, you’re fairly certain there isn’t anything out there but it doesn’t hurt to double check. With a nod to Dana, you swing the door open. Creeping out of your apartment more carefully than in the past, just to be safe, you look towards all entrances to this hall, looking for open doors. If there are any, of the, _things_ , you want to see them before they see you.

With reasonable certainty that there’s nothing in the _hall_ that will attack you. You turn to your right and head towards the closest door. The Jeffersons’ place. You haven’t been in there before, but you know they have a couple of kids. A boy and a girl. You’re fairly certain everybody would have been away from home at the time of, when everything went down.

When you tell Dana this she shushes you and motions for you to knock anyway. It doesn’t hurt to be safe.

You pause before knocking, even if no one was home it’s still strange to think of the family next door as those things. The kids are -or were- good kids, the parents were good people, just very busy.

You knock quietly, then a little louder. You pause listening for movement from the other side of the door then knock even louder. More listening then a little more knocking.

You signal for Dana to try her hand at lockpicking when the door opens in a little.

“Stop it!” You recognize the neighbor girl, “Are you trying to summon the orks?”

“Ava!” You can’t help but laugh, “I’m so glad you’re okay. Can we come in?” You look around nervously mostly for show but partially terribly serious.

It works, she closes the door and unfastens the lock, the opens it again and lets you in.

  


Ask after her brother and parents. See if she or they have any food they’d be willing to part with.

 

You know Ava’s got food hidden away somewhere, her parents are very disaster conscientious. She’s smart, she won’t risk her life over food. You could try to force her to give it over.

 

You are honestly thinking about taking food from a kid, apologize and go look elsewhere.

 

Ava’s a smart girl, and if you remember right she was part of a survival camp thing last year, ask her and whoever else is in the apartment to join you. More mouths to feed but more hands to work too.


	6. Neighbor Children

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ava’s a smart girl, and if you remember right she was part of a survival camp thing last year, ask her and whoever else is in the apartment to join you. More mouths to feed but more hands to work too.

Ava closes and locks the door behind you. 

“What are you doing? Why are you wandering about? Don’t you know the orcs’ll get you?” Ava quietly questions, harsh but only just audible. 

“We were just looking for food. We didn’t know that you were still here.” You tell her to look around to see if you can spot signs of anyone else. 

“Are you alone?” Dana asks before you get the chance to. 

“No, Eli’s here too.” Ava goes to the living room and calls a little further back, “It’s okay, E, it’s just one of the neighbors.” 

You and Dana follow her into the other room. You spot a gun on the counter of the kitchen and shudder to think what might have happened if you hadn’t knocked. 

Eli exits one of the bedrooms as you enter the living room, now that you seem them together you can see that both are more than a little worn. Looking too thin from the last time you saw them and moving more quietly than you had known they were able to, you feel deep worry for these children. Because they are just that, children, Ava’s only thirteen and Eli just turned nine.

You aren’t actually sure what you’ll do with them, but you know they probably can’t survive on their own. 

“Come with us.” You say, not a question, but not commanding either.

“Why should we? We don’t know you. Even then, I’m sure our parents will be home soon anyway.” Ava questions them with the surety of her own place.

“Ava, it’s been two weeks,” Dana says sadly. 

“I’m sure they’d want you to be safe. But if you stay here you’re going to run out of food.” You press, “If you come with us we can help you look for them, and make sure that the two of you are fed and cared for.” 

“Are you going to leave the building?” Eli asks. You jump, you hadn’t realized he’d gotten that close.

“Yeah. Probably, but not right now.” You answer. 

The two kids share a look. 

“We’ll come with you when you leave the building.” Ava says, “If you still want us to come with you then. But until then we’re going to wait for our parents.” 

Dana starts to argue, but you understand, “Alright. Stay safe you two, and if you need anything or change your minds we’re going to be right next door most of the time.” 

You walk Dana to the door, then the two of you leave and head down the hall. Noises come from the next apartment you check, but the third is empty. Slipping in you both do a sweep of the place before digging into the kitchen.

“Why didn’t you insist they came with?” spits a little furiously as you pull things from the cupboards. 

“Because at best they would have come with us and run away at a later point and at worst they would have actually fought against us and drawn everything in this building that wants to kill us.” Dana looks shocked, she probably hadn’t expected that response. “When we leave we can ask them again. But for now, they don’t want to go.” 

You pack up the stuff and get it back to your apartment. You try to go over how long it’ll last and what you can make with it later that evening, but Dana only barely pays attention to what you’re saying. Eventually, you both just go to bed, the job half finished and without dinner. 

In the morning Dana wakes you up at almost dawn, “We should leave.” 

“What?”

“We should leave soon. The longer we’re in this building the more likely we’ll get eaten by one of our former neighbors, so we should leave. Soon.” She looks at you intently from the side of your bed and you can only blink owlishly at her. 

“Coffee?” You ask pleadingly and to see if she’s already run through a pot again. 

“I started some but it’s still steeping. If we get the same amount of food from two more apartments we’ll have enough for a couple of weeks with the kids.” 

“Can we talk about this after I’m dressed?” 

“I guess.” She strides with almost too much purpose from the room and you can feel that today’s going to be a long day.

Once you’re more appropriately dressed and no longer half asleep you enter the kitchen and take the cup that Dana is offering. 

“So you want to get to breaking into the other apartments so we can better convince the kids that they should come with us?” You sit at the table, which is still covered in food but food that has been organized and the meal list has been modified to include what you now have as well. 

“Yes. I did the math, if we find roughly the same amount of food in two other apartments we’ll have enough for us for almost a month or for the four of us for two weeks. Longer if we ration it a little more.” Dana looks so serious, her brow is furrowed and you’re sure if you asked she’d show you the math sheet from somewhere. 

“Dana, they may have told us they’d join us if we left because they were trying to politely tell us they were never coming with. They probably thought that if we kept on we’d get eaten or attract some, of the others, and have to leave.” You try to reason.

“They’ll come with us I’m sure of it.”

You sigh and accept you won’t be able to talk her out of her mad plan, so you plan to go with. 

The two of you make a better battle plan, which mostly includes going door to door and dropping things off as soon as you get them. You also grab a sharpie to mark the doors that you’ve been through or that you can’t/won’t go through. 

Then you go, you go into five apartments but knock on eight doors before you get the amount of food that Dana wants. Then together you go back to the kid’s apartment and request entrance. Now though you have to figure out how you’re going to convince them to come with. 

 

Try to convince them their  parents would want them safe, and that staying in a building full of creatures with only one gun isn’t smart. 

 

Try Dana’s approach of luring them in with food , it’s obvious they haven’t eaten properly in a while and they’ll probably agree.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ava's very smart and knows what her parent's told her to do in case of an emergency. Just not this emergency so much.


	7. At Risk of Angering Your Friends...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Try to convince them their parents would want them safe, and that staying in a building full of creatures with only one gun isn’t smart.

You watch Ava’s careful movements before you say anything. She’s moving carefully and blatantly watching you. Her brother is sitting on the couch in the picture of ease but his eyes have a hawk-like intensity. 

“Are you leaving soon?” Eli asks from the couch, evidently bored with the silence. 

“We are. Now, actually-” Dana starts but you quickly interrupt. 

“Today or tomorrow. We have enough supplies for a while. You have time to decide if you actually want to come with us.” you pause for a moment, the kids look dubious. “We want you to come with us. You’ll be safer, more people to watch your backs. Your parents would want you to be safe. No matter what. From what I’ve seen at least you’ve only got one gun to protect you and that really won’t be enough. We aren’t your parents, you have little to no reason to trust us. But we have food that -with you- will last a few weeks, and we’re offering you the chance to come with us to look for your family.”

The kids look at each other, “Give us time to figure out if we want to join you?” Ava more questions than says. 

“We can’t give you more than a couple of days-”

“Come back tomorrow. We’ll either be ready to go then or we won’t come with.” Ava states, her eyes are hard but hopeful. 

“Tomorrow then.” You turn to look at Dana and boy does she look upset. 

You try to apologize without saying anything, but now she won’t look at you. You listen at the door before quietly moving into the hall and back to your apartment. Once back inside you look around at the place that has been your home for such a short time but at the same time, it really does feel like home. 

While momentarily reminiscing Dana grabs the supplies for trips to get food and goes back to the door. 

“Whoa, what are you doing?” You don’t go so far as to try to physically stop her, because you aren’t sure she won’t try to stab you, but you stand close enough to the door she’ll have to hit you with it to get out. 

“I’m going to my apartment to grab a few things. Don’t worry I’ll be back before tomorrow.” She starts to open the door.

“Dana, wait we have to go together, it’s dangerous!” 

“I don’t care. I don’t want to see you for a while.” 

“Dana-” 

She slams the door into you with an awful meaty thwack before slipping out. She pulls it closed before you can slip out as well. You go to pull it open again but decide to leave her be. She’ll either be back or she won’t and at this point, you can tell that all following her will do is get one or both of you hurt. 

You find an old backpack that you haven’t used in forever and empty it. Laughing at the number of pens and old paperwork that you really probably should have either turned in or gotten rid of forever ago. You start trying to figure out what you should bring with. 

A change of clothes is one of the first things on the bed, along with a sleeping bag that you’ve only used once. Next, you grab some of your larger kitchen knives and briefly wish you thought to own a gun. Next, a toolkit that is a little on the small side, but it good enough that you can fix a lot of things with it. Next is a decent first aid kit your parents made you get after that time you all but filleted your hand shortly after moving into this apartment. Then a large water bottle that you got to keep you on track for drinking more water that ended up in your kitchen that you never used. After that are some lighters that you have no clue how they got into your apartment, but you aren’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. 

Everything fits into your backpack at first. But then you remember that you have some rope and so you take everything out and reattach some things to the outside. Now with plenty of space to spare, so you start packing food in there too. 

You spend the next hour or so hunting in your closet for another backpack you’re positive you own. You aren’t successful, but you find multiple momentos that you had thought for sure you lost. You look under your bed but only find a half dozen single socks. You check the kitchen, which is sadly empty of most things, and only find a deck of cards in the back of one of the cabinets. It seems like a full set so you toss it in your bag too, along with a couple of books you’ve been meaning to read. 

You do find the other backpack in the living room in the closet in there, you don’t remember putting it there, but it doesn’t matter now. You empty that one of the stuff left over from a camping trip that you got some serious food poisoning on and fill it full of the canned food you know is safe.

You wait past sundown for Dana to come back, but when it becomes clear she probably won’t be coming back soon you make yourself a can of chili and eat the whole thing by itself. Then you wait a while longer, hoping she’s okay. 

Finally, you just unlock the front door, lock your bedroom door, and crawl into bed, no sense wasting sleep over things you can’t change. 

Waking up with the dawn you double check everything in your bags and listen at your bedroom door before opening it. No creatures in your living room, but also no Dana. 

You do the last sweep of your apartment. You half-heartedly wait for Dana. But she doesn’t show up. You can’t think of anything else to bring, you sit down to the last meal of more chili in your apartment. You spend another couple of hours just going over your books and memories before leaving. 

You take what little you have decided to bring, and head over to the kids’ apartment. 

Lo and behold when you get there, there are Dana and the kids. Each has two bags and some kind of weapon. Dana still won’t look at you, but she explains that she and the kids have been trying to decide if taking a car or running would be a better idea.

 

You listen to their arguments,  on one hand, none of you have keys to a car ,  but you could probably find keys in another apartment real easily.

 

On the other hand,  cars make a lot of noise and it might be better for you to make a run for it. It’ll be easier to get past any creatures and you can hide way easier.


	8. Running Without Reason

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> On the other hand, cars make a lot of noise and it might be better for you to make a run for it. It’ll be easier to get past any creatures and you can hide way easier.

You take some time to think it over, but ultimately running will probably be safer. A car engine will almost certainly attract unwanted attention. That’s if you even had keys to the car in the first place. 

It ends up being three against one. Ava was the only one who wanted to take the car. But Dana seemed to be on the fence if you had said to take the car she probably would have agreed. 

You go over your bags together, the kids offer you one of their parents’ extra bags so you don’t have to use your pants as a bag. The kids have some food and some stuff for hunting and trapping. They also have a couple of books about wilderness survival and knot making. Dana has some more food and some rope. All together you have a lot of useful things and a surprising amount of food. 

Packing your bags again and loading them up you all prepare yourself for going outside. Some words of encouragement are shared, everyone makes sure their bags are properly attached, everyone has a weapon at hand. 

You listen at the door, and don’t hear anything that may make you delay. 

With a nod to the others and a nod in return, you make your way into the hall. Slowly you creep through the halls, listening for any sign of the creatures. You lead your little group, Ava right behind you and Eli behind her, Dana watches the rear.

You manage to avoid any of the creatures as you move down the stairs, you hear them around the halls but none see you, thankfully. When you get to the ground floor you realize why you really haven’t seen any of these things upstairs. Most of them were getting out through the front door, at least, you assume and hope that based on the blood on the front door. 

You point to the front door and try to tell her silently that you shouldn’t go out it. You point towards the back as a better possible exit. 

Dana nods and you all turn to the back of the building. 

Creeping carefully you see one of the things crouched over a body. The way the creature’s sickeningly ripping into the body you have to fight not to throw up. You can hear the tearing of flesh and the noises it makes as it chews its victim. 

You gag a little as you try to rush past the creature quietly as possible. 

Ava gasps as she sees the body’s face, but you pull her out of the creatures' sight before it notices her. The creature stops its eating for a moment listening for more noise. When none comes it goes back to eating. 

Eli and Dana follow pretty quickly, the four of you sneak outside. The sun casts everything into deep relief. The bright areas are too bright and the shadows are so dark that anything could hide in them. 

You take the middle of the road, at least then you’ll have a chance to see anything that comes after you. Together you alternate running and walking quickly. 

But you attract their attention. You hear them running after you. 

You run.

But you aren’t fast enough.

Thoughts of the others flit through your head as the creatures tear your flesh from your bones, but you can hear their screams and you know their fates as well. 

Your last thought is that you wish you had made different choices, then it all goes black.

  
Start over

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chance will be up soon.

**Author's Note:**

> The first person to comment gets to pick where the story goes.  
> Always looking for prompts, horror prompts will likely be answered sooner.  
> If you can think of any tags that fit this story please comment/message me.


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